Confounding the political punditocracy, Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox is rising rapidly in the polls and is now so close to overtaking Democrat Gavin Newsom that he’s nearly within the margin of error of winning. That’s what a new statewide poll from Probolsky Research, conducted Aug. 29-Sep. 2 among 900 likely voters, found.

If California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom was expecting an easy race for the governor’s mansion, a poll released Thursday didn’t carry much in the way of good news.

While the statewide poll from Probolsky Research showed Newsom leading with 44 percent of respondents, his Republican opponent John Cox had 39 percent support; a further 17 percent of those polled were unsure whom they would support.

So all the pundit claims about Cox running in an unwinnable race, due to the Democrats’ voter registration advantage, seem to be falling apart.

Here’s another deet that won’t make the Democrats’ candidate happy: the trend that’s Cox’s friend.

On June 19, a USC-Dornsife-Los Angeles Times poll had Newsom in the lead, 45% to Cox’s 28%.